Celebrating W.S. Merwin, New U.S. Poet Laureate

Crowning a career filled with laurels, 82-year-old poet William Stanley Merwin
has been named 17th Poet Laureaute of the United States. The weighty
title, accompanied by a $35,000 stipend, is conferred by the Librarian
of the U.S. Congress and carries few specified responsibilities. Literary
commentators have responded to the pick with little surprise, given
Merwin's eminence in the field, and are more focused on his relative
isolation, his elliptical style, and his role within contemporary American
poetry. Here's what they're saying:

Very Un-D.C.Drew Bratcher
of Washingtonian delves into Merwin's personal and aesthetic distance
from D.C. Bratcher notes he's a "Zen Buddhist [who] lives in a
rainforest in Hawaii," and says his delicate lyrics owe "more to Asian
and Latin American poets, many of whose work Merwin has translated,
than to Beltway favorites such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Robert
Frost."

Passionate About NatureMike Melia
of PBS's News Hour explains that Merwin "designed and built their house
at the edge of a dormant volcano. He is an avid gardener and passionate
environmentalist. His garden has grown into a sanctuary for a number of
rare plants." He brings back a News Hour segment on Merwin with Jeffrey
Brown that you can view on their page.

A Quiet Poet of Mysterious, Musical LinesPatricia Cohen
of the New York Times provides an excellent account of Merwin's life.
She describes him as "reclusive," "extravagantly" handsome, and known
for (in the words of fellow poet Dana Gioia), combining "the intensity
of English-language modernism with the expansive lyricism of
Spanish-language modernism." In an overview of Merwin's late work in
the same newspaper, Dwight Garner corrects the view of him as "a man apart from society" by saying "Mr. Merwin is back, and he is having a moment. "

Detached Yet PoliticalPhillip Kennicot of the Washington Post describes the poet as grappling with "powerful connections between the sense of self, the elusive
transparency of the present moment, the natural world and the numinous
beyond." These concerns may sound abstract, but they are, Kennicot writes, "deeply political." He reports that Merwin will "will visit the Library of Congress, give readings and participate in public sessions" in a Q&A format.

Perspective From Another Poet LaureateCharles Simic
recounts his experience as a previous Poet Laureate in The New York
Review of Books. He was shocked at what an avalanche of attention the
prize brought. "It was very strange to be talking to so many different
people about poetry every day: the big television networks whose
reporters were astonished to hear that anyone in America reads or cares
for poetry... I figured all the hoopla would end after a couple of
months, but it continued during the entire year I served." He was
clearly delighted to find that contrary to stereotype, Americans do
care about poetry. "If I were asked to sum up my experience as the poet
laureate, I would say, there's nothing more interesting or more hopeful
about America than its poetry."

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